I'm Louise Fletcher. As President of 
I'm getting more and more resumes in my inbox that have been created using the latest version of Microsoft Word (Word 2007).
How do I know this? Because Microsoft has created a new file format this time round and it's not compatible with older versions of Word. Unless the user specifically chooses to save a document as a .doc file (the old file type), Word 2007 saves it as a .docx file.
Most people aren't even aware of this, and when you email your resume, it's unlikely that a busy recruiter is going to contact you and ask for it to be resent. Which means you will lose out on great opportunities just because no one could read your resume.
One person who sent his resume for a free assessment last week actually was aware of the different file formats and helpfully suggested that I would need to download a file converter before I could open his resume. Gee thanks! I don't have a converter yet although I'm sure I could find one if I looked around. But more importantly, potential employers don't have converters either. How are they going to feel when they get a document they can't open accompanied by a note suggesting they download a converter? My guess is they're going to skip on to one of the resumes that they can open without a problem.
This is an easy problem to fix - just be sure to select the option to save your file as a.doc file because it's going to be a long time until all recruiters and HR people are using Word 2007.
You could convert your resume to the Adobe pdf format and then mail it. It prevents any information being deleted from the word document. And it does not take more than 10 mins to do so. There are lots of free sites offering this service online.
Posted by: Suchintya | June 28, 2007 at 11:59 AM